Every day brings a new story. And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books.
Today is the story of December 7th.
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It is the 341st day of the year, leaving 24 days in 2021.
For years, it competed with the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, for talent and playwrights
It was then know as the Theatre Royal, Covent Gardens, duly commissioned by King Charles II, who was long dead by the time the first theater was built in Covent Gardens. For much of its first 100 years, the theater showed performances of the dramatic arts, although its first ballet was performed in 1734, and in the same year, the first opera, Il pastor fido, was sung.
The composer, George Frideric Handel, served as its first music director. Indeed, from 1735 until his death in 1759, Handel gave regular concerts at the theater, and he wote many of his operas and oratoris specifically for the venue.
A fire destroyed the theater in 1808. It was rebuilt and re-opened the following year. Fires hit again in 1846 and 1856, It was again rebuilt, and in 1892, was re-named the Royal Opera House.
It has been renovated and expanded several times in the 20th Century, and today it includes a theater along with educational facilities to help it fufill its role as "the national centre for opera and ballet."
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